Unfortunately for Apple, the judge in its case against Samsung in the US has agreed to review claims of misconduct against the jury foreman, who concealed the fact that he was the defendant in a lawsuit brought against him by a Samsung subsidiary and lost, which he told friends "ruined his life" and caused him to file for bankruptcy.
Another set-back for Apple is the US Patent Office invalidated 20 of its "rubber-banding" patent claims after the trial, including claims related directly to the case. This was based on the discovery of "prior art" that preceded Apple's patent application, proving it was not Apple's invention.
One of the invalidated patent claims was determined by the jury to be infringed upon by Samsung which forms much of the basis of the verdict. With the patent now invalidated, this throws the whole verdict into doubt since Apple should have never been granted that patent in the first place.
This leads to the question of how valid many of Apple's "design" patents really are.
Examples include Apple being awarded patents for something "that helps the touchscreen interpret whether the user wants, for example, to scroll up and down or switch between applications" and "allows the device to show an image on a screen with a second, translucent image over it".
No wonder the US Patent Office has been rescinding numerous patents it previously awarded to Apple. These examples are just ridiculous. The patent system was designed really for mechanical inventions, back when cutting-edge technology were electric lights, steam engines and the phonograph.
Now you can patent an IDEA or CONCEPT without actually executing it, or in these cases, writing the actual software for it. That's how Apple has all these nonsensical "patents" because they submitted every idea you can imagine, and weren't required to actually show working demonstrations of these "ideas".
The real issue is with what Apple is doing is they are basically trying to stop innovation in our world to further line their own pockets. Sadly most of the patents they are applying for they NEVER INTEND TO ACTUALIZE in a product. They only want to PREVENT any other companies from creating new products with these ideas so to block any profits for their competitors while they are trying to monopolize the market.
Sadly what this means for consumers is that Apple is preventing technological advances from reaching the market, meaning not only are the products available to us not as good as they can be, but that also we are increasingly given less choice in terms of product selection and being forced to choose only Apple given the US courts are helping them in achieving a monopoly in the United States.
It's worth noting that the US is the ONLY country where Apple has had any MAJOR success in their frivolous patent lawsuits. They have been defeated in the courts of practically every other country including a rather humiliating defeat in the UK where the court ordered Apple to post a humbling apology to Samsung on its website and in newspaper ads acknowledging Samsung didn't copy their designs.
Another sad fact is Apple now spends MORE money on lawyers, litigation and patent trolling than it does on research and development. They are paying lawyers and law firms literally billions of dollars every year on these lawsuits.
The really surprising thing is that Apple does NOT expect to recoup these legal fees even if they WON all their lawsuits. The BILLIONS in legal fees they spend every year DWARFS the potential damages awards they could win in these case. So the real reason they are suing is not for financial compensation but rather purely to prevent their competitors products from reaching the market.
How's that for "free trade". Rather than competing in the consumer marketplace by offering better products and value and letting the consumer decide the winner, Apple prefers to choose FOR the consumer by denying choice for the public and not having to compete by offering the best product.
On top of that, Apple has been refusing to PAY LICENSE FEES for using technology patented by other companies, and just lost patent lawsuits brought onto them by VirnetX and Motorola.
Oh, the irony! Apple is undergoing an ongoing crusade to stop its competitors from releasing their superior products around the world based on phantom "infringements" of their ridiculous "design" patents (most of them which are being thrown out and invalidated by the US Patent Office) and yet they are refusing to pay license fees to other companies for use of REAL technology patents?
Just goes to show what a two-faced hypocritical anti-consumer monopolistic company Apple really is. Sadly when once Apple was the anti-Microsoft, Apple has now BECOME Microsoft, Version 2.0.
] and lots of other Samsung/Nokia phones.
